Gail Devers

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Gail Devers is going to Athens to run in the Olympics . . . her fifth Olympics. Doctors once nearly amputated both of her legs. "I know that I am blessed," she said Sunday, "and for that I am thankful." Carrie Tollefson also is going to Greece to run. Doctors once placed a cadaver's bone into one of her legs. "Dead guys are sometimes good things!" Tollefson gushed after her race. What makes someone run? Sometimes it is the ability to outrun one's past.

Gail Devers wants double and already has more than nothing. It's hot enough to order a big dessert, and Monday, she started going after the second scoop. Devers, 29, of Bridgeton, Mo., qualified 10th in the second round of the 100-meter hurdles in 12.83 seconds. The time will give her an outside lane in Wednesday's semifinal--the prelude to that night's final--but her coach, Bob Kersee, said she needed to conserve energy after successfully defending her Olympic gold medal in the 100-meter sprint Saturday.

Michael Johnson has given new meaning to the idea of making tracks. His are so imposing the leaders of his sport simply take whatever direction Johnson wants to give them. Schedule changes for the Olympics so Johnson can become the first man to win the 200 and 400 meters? Done. Wild-card entries for the world track and field championships so Johnson can compete despite missing the U.S. team selection meet? Done. "It's an honor to be treated that way," Johnson said Monday, after the International Amateur Athletic Federation announced all defending champions would be invited to compete in the world meet Aug. 2-10 in Athens.

Disappointment can come in different forms and varying degrees of pain. Gail Devers seems intent on experiencing it in as many ways as she can. At the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, she was blazing to apparent victory in the 100-meter hurdles when she tripped over her final hurdle, fell to the ground and rolled across the finish line fifth. In Wednesday's semifinals, she made it through four hurdles before she pulled up with a hamstring injury. Some people have personal problems to hurdle in life.

Gail Devers took Olympic moments to new heights Saturday night, winning the fastest women's race in history 17 months after fearing her feet would have to be amputated. Complications from misdiagnosed Graves` disease in 1991 forced her to crawl across rooms in pain. On Saturday night, a crowd of 65,000 at the Olympic Games saw her win the women's 100-meter dash in 10.82 seconds and circle the track in joy. "The last three years of my life definitely have been a miracle," said the California preacher's daughter.

It was 125 degrees on the track when the U.S. Olympic Festival track and field competition began Friday afternoon. By the time Gail Devers ran her two races Friday evening, the meet officials had been out in the heat and relentless sun for five hours. As Devers walked off the Alamo Stadium track after her second race, an impressive victory in the 100-meter hurdles, one of the officials stopped her. "Thanks, Gail," the man said. "It is performances like yours that keep us standing out here."

She still wants to see herself as "little old Gail," but Gail Devers' lifelong vow to be modest is sorely tested these days. After all, what is Devers to think when a family writes to say that it wants an autographed picture of her to commemorate the birth of their baby? And a groom-to-be writes to say that an autographed picture of Devers is the present his bride will treasure most? And others write to say they want a picture to inspire them when they feel down? That adulation has come to Devers since she won the 1992 Olympic gold medal in the 100 meters.

While the men's track and field trials were headlined by failure Saturday, the women's trials were marked by great personal triumph. Gail Devers, only 14 months after facing the possible amputation of her feet, made the Olympic team in the 100-meter dash. "I didn`t think I`d ever run again," said Devers, who couldn`t walk in March of 1991 after being diagnosed with Graves` Disease, a thyroid condition. Radiation treatments blistered her skin and infection threatened her feet.

The race lasted less than 11 seconds. Then it took an hour and 45 minutes to confirm the winner. Meantime, when Gail Devers of the United States and Merlene Ottey of Jamaica faced the press, neither knew for sure who had won the 100-meter title at the world track and field championships Monday night. "I believe I was the winner even if she gets the gold medal," Ottey said. The runners had left this surreal scene before an International Amateur Athletic Federation jury of appeals rejected a Jamaican protest and let the original result stand.